Blood Coins
Draco and Amber were led up the staircase by the female servant.
After they reached the second floor, there was an elevator waiting for them at the end of a hallway.
They got into the elevator, and Draco saw that it was quite lavish. Its walls held mirrors, and the floor was plated in gold.
The roof of the elevator also had an elaborate painting on it depicting a lush garden.
Draco was shocked to see that the painting was moving! He was stuck in a trance as he watched the leaves and plants sway with a non-existent wind.
Without him realizing it, the elevator came to a stop.
The servant called out to Draco and Amber, who were both distracted by the elaborate tapestry.
'Hmph, these peasants. Have they never seen a living painting before?' the servant thought to herself with disdain.
Draco and Amber snapped out of their reverie, and followed the servant out of the elevator.
Once they were out of the elevator, they found themselves inside of a large penthouse style room.
The room was filled with lavish furniture and powerful artifacts that were displayed on pedestals across the walls.
There were also other moving paintings all across the walls, and Draco almost got stuck in another trance when he looked at them.
Fancy silk rugs decorated the room's marble floor, and Draco saw that there was a strange animal laying on a plush bed in the corner of the room.
The creature looked like a dog, but it had three eyes that shone with a green light. It had black scales covering its body, and scaled wings sat folded on its back.
The animal briefly raised its head to look at Draco when he entered the room, but quickly lowered it to return to its nap.
The wall at the end of the room was a wide window that overlooked the rest of the business district.
At the center of the room, a powerfully built man sat on a white sofa.
The man oozed power, and his muscular frame could barely fit within his well-tailored suit.
Just by looking at him Draco could tell that he was a powered individual of great strength. Perhaps even stronger than Muhammed or Amira.
The man stood up from his seat when Draco entered the room, "Good day, my name is Ghiath Bashar." he said, extending a hand to Draco.
Draco took his hand, keeping a stoic face as the man squeezed his hand with a thousand pounds of force.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Bashar. You can call me Draco." he replied with a smile.
Bashar nodded, surprised by the strength in Draco's hands, "Likewise. I see that my good friend Saalim sent you to me. How is he doing?"
"Saalim is well. I recently helped him take down a bandit camp back at Sabha. Apparently the leader was his brother." Draco replied.
Bashar raised an eyebrow when he heard that, "Oh? That bastard Hassan finally bit the dust?"
Draco nodded, "That's right, I helped kill the man myself." he said, figuring that information would work to his benefit.
Bashar laughed when he heard that, "Well you have my thanks! That sly dog has been a pest of these lands for years."
"Don't worry about it, it was just business." Draco said with a smile.
Bashar understood that all too well, "Speaking of business, what brings you here my friend?" he asked.
Draco fished through his robes for his schematics he had gotten from Khalifa Haftar's compound.
He pulled out the documents with the schematics for creating the production devices. When he handed them to Bashar, his eyes widened in surprise.
"How did you find these? No matter, something like this would take tremendous resources to get." he said.
"I understand, that's why I came to you. I heard that you are the best in Libya at getting things like this." Draco fibbed, trying to butter Bashar up.
Bashar shook his head, "It's not a matter of getting things, something of this magnitude would have to be built from the ground up."
Draco didn't know what the big deal was, "So, can you build it?" he asked.
Bashar sighed, "You don't get it my friend. This would take at least a hundred blood coins to acquire the materials needed. This isn't even mentioning the supporting equipment required to produce progenitor serum."
Draco was lost, "Blood coins? What the hell are those?" he asked.
Bashar looked at Draco with a stupefied expression on his face.
"You have schematics like these and you don't even know about blood coins? Draco, who exactly are you?" Bashar asked.
Draco realized he couldn't just lie his way out of this, he had to cooperate with Bashaar to have any hope of getting his schematics built.
"Truthfully, I have connections with the Khalid Dynasty. I left the Dynasty to start my operations, but I do not have their support." he explained.
This still didn't explain how Draco didn't know about blood coins, but Bashar let it go for now.
"I won't ask about your circumstances, perhaps that's why you are unaware of blood coins. However, everything in the powered world revolves around them."
Bashar reached into his suit jacket and pulled out a black coin.
This coin had red lines running through it, and they pulsed rhythmically as if they had a heartbeat.
Draco stared at this coin with interest, and he heard Bashar continue.
"Blood coins are created from special minerals that are submerged in progenitor blood. It takes almost a hundred years for them to absorb enough blood to be created, and they are almost priceless."
This was all news to Draco, "How priceless?" he asked.
Bashar scratched his chin, "Well, one blood coin is probably worth around a hundred million dinars."
Draco's eyes widened in shock. This meant that one of these blood coins was worth over twenty million US dollars.
Considering what he needed would cost around a hundred of these blood coins, that was almost 2 billion dollars!
Draco currently only had a little over $200,000. Draco was only 0.0001% of the way to 2 billion.
He thought that he could start his operations soon, but now the goal post had been moved. It would probably take him decades to get that much money at this rate.
"How can I obtain these blood coins?" Draco asked Bashar.
Bashar shook his head, "You can't just purchase them with mortal currency, no one would part with them for mere money."
Draco sighed, "It looks like I'm going to have to find some other way to get them."
Bashar nodded, "You can enlist your services as a mercenary, but it would take your entire lifetime to get that many blood coins. Libya's royal family has the largest supply in these lands, but they only give them out for great deeds of service."
Draco took all of this information in, "Where can I find the royal family?" he asked Bushar.
"They reside in the capital city of Tripoli. It's about a 9 hour drive on the highway."
Draco was surprised to hear there was a highway, but it made sense that there were roads connecting Libya's major cities.
After Draco heard all of this, he thanked Bushar for his help.
"I will be back soon with enough blood coins." Draco said.
Bushar laughed when he heard Draco's confidence, "Then I shall await your return."
After Draco left, Bushar sat down on his couch. His strange pet walked over and rested its head on his lap.
He petted its head as he was lost in thought, 'That Draco fellow is interesting. He must have some way to make that money if he's so confident.'
Meanwhile, Draco and Amber had left the building and were now climbing back into the armored bus.
Draco was currently brainstorming ideas on how to acquire blood coins.
Being a mercenary wasn't off the table, but it would take far too long for his liking.
'It seems the only way to quickly get enough blood coins is to use Formica's horn.' he thought to himself.
When Draco looked at his forces in the bus, he knew that he needed to find a way to train them. He hoped he would have been able to turn them into powered, but that was going to take some time.
The prisoners he had freed from the slavers were also still wearing tattered clothes and had no weapons.
Draco looked down the street and saw that there was a store with a gun sign atop it.
He instructed Addo to pull the bus to the front of this store, this would be their next stop.